Estate Planning
If you own property, have bank accounts, have children (no matter what age), you should have a Will. You are not required by law to have one, but if you don’t, and you do have these things, then the State of Texas has its own rules for distributing your property that it will use. Do you want the State to write your Will? Everyone should have an estate plan.
A Will does not legally have to be done by an attorney, but it is a good idea to have an attorney draw one up as opposed to finding forms online that may or may not provide everything you need it to to protect your children if you passed away, and how you want your estate to be distributed.
It is the process in which a judge proves a Will is valid and approves the executor who is the one who distributes assets. You may or may not need to go through probate, but you do need a Will to go through the probate process.
If you don’t have a Will and die with assets, then an extra step will need to be taken in order to get those assets distributed. It is a lot cheaper to have a Will done, than to die without one. Dying without one can also cause problems for loved ones left behind.
No, not without the court’s permission, and again it’s more work without a Will.
Yes, you will need to probate the Will in order to transfer title 100% to you, ideally within 4 years of his death. Probating his Will will need to be done before the home can be sold.
Clients often think these documents provide the same powers, but they don’t. A living will states whether you want to be kept alive artificially (as in with a respirator) if you’re unconscious. A power of attorney allows for someone to make medical, financial or legal decisions for you while you are living. Powers of attorney are not effective upon a person’s death. Therefore, a Will is needed.
The cost varies depending on what you own and your situation, i.e., do you have kids, a child with special needs, etc. A free consultation with Erin Lucke will give you that answer.
You should revisit your Will or trust and other estate planning documents every time you have a significant life change in your immediate or extended family or any time you buy, sell, or inherit property. It’s a good idea to visit with your estate planning attorney every 5 years or so, but it’s never too late to look at it to see if it needs updating.
The parents need to be present in the meeting. They are actually the prospective clients, not their children. They are welcome to bring their adult children to the meeting however.
This is a question Erin answers when she meets with prospective clients as there are several differences.
A revocable living trust provides no asset protection for the trust maker during his or her life. Upon the death of the trust maker, however, or upon the death of the first spouse to die if it is a joint trust, the trust becomes irrevocable as to the deceased trust maker’s property and can provide asset protection for the beneficiaries, with two important caveats. First, the assets must remain in the trust to provide ongoing asset protection. In other words, once the trustee distributes the assets to a beneficiary, those assets are no longer protected and can be attached by that beneficiary’s creditors. If the beneficiary is married, the distributed assets may also be subject to the spouse’s creditor(s), or they may be available to the former spouse upon divorce.
Prolonged Asset Protection
The second caveat follows logically from the first. Trusts for the lifetime of the beneficiaries provide prolonged asset protection for the trust assets. The more rights the beneficiary has with respect to compelling trust distributions, the less asset protection the trust provides. Lifetime trusts also permit your financial advisor to continue to invest the trust assets as you instruct, which can help ensure that trust returns are sufficient to meet your planning objectives. Generally, a creditor “steps into the shoes” of the debtor and can exercise any rights of the debtor. Thus, if a beneficiary has the right to compel a distribution from a trust, so too can a creditor compa distribution from that trust.
